You used us, war vets tell Mugabe

HARARE – Disgruntled war veterans were weighing up their options last
night after panicking authorities banned their planned get-together in
Harare tomorrow – a move they say is meant to pressure them to ditch their
withering criticism of President Robert Mugabe as Zanu PF’s ugly
succession wars intensify.

This comes after police revealed yesterday that they had not cleared the
crucial indaba which the vocal leadership of the Zimbabwe National
Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) says it had called to discuss
the welfare of former freedom fighters, as well as the ever-deteriorating
social and political situation in the country.

At the same time, well-placed Zanu PF sources told the Daily News that
panicking party bigwigs had claimed that the disaffected war veterans’
meeting had not been sanctioned because they were allegedly planning to
discuss the warring ruling party’s divisive succession riddle.

But police said the planned meeting had been banned on the grounds that
the war vets did not meet the full requirements of the much-criticised
Public Order and Security Act (Posa), which governs the convening of
public meetings.

Contacted by the Daily News, a seething ZNLWVA spokesperson, Douglas
Mahiya, denied vehemently that the planned indaba was going to be a
political gathering, also accusing the police of applying the law
“selectively”.

“Listen, this meeting is not a political party meeting. We are looking
forward to have all war veterans gathering for the purpose of reviewing
the country’s political, economic and social progress since Zimbabwe’s
independence from Britain in 1980

“The law is being applied selectively and we would like to ask why this is
so? Our requirements are being stifled. The MDC and other parties are
granted permission to have their programmes but not war veterans.

“Why is it that war veterans are being denied their rights? Where have we
gone wrong? Yet we are simply talking about issues affecting people and
our suffering.

“We are very worried about the position that has been taken by our party.
Although we have given everything to the party, when it comes to enjoying
the power that many sacrificed for, war veterans are being treated like
second-class citizens,” Mahiya complained.

He emphasised that tomorrow’s planned meeting had been called to discuss
and map the way forward after Mugabe and the Zanu PF government had failed
to honour their pledges which they made during the two parties’ meeting in
April last year.

“We pose no threat to anyone at all. We were tear-gassed and beaten last
year even as the truth is that we want peace.

“We held a meeting last year and we did not discuss the issues affecting
us. So, the reason we plan to meet is the same, our welfare.

“We also wanted to discuss why we are now being regarded as useless people
in Zanu PF politics, yet we freed the country. Comrades should be patient,
because we are going to have the meeting.

“We now feel like aliens in our own land. Even the ministry (of War
Veterans) does not show that they are concerned about us,” Mahiya said,
adding that it was baffling to many why the Zanu PF youth and women’s
leagues were not being subjected to the same poor treatment that was being
meted out to war veterans.

In February last year, war veterans were battered by heavily-armed police
after they trooped into Harare for a meeting with Mugabe, who later held a
televised address to the nation after the incident denying that such a
meeting had been organised.

Without mincing his words, Mugabe also pointedly accused war vets
chairperson and former Cabinet minister Christopher Mutsvangwa of having
misled the former freedom fighters to come to the capital for the
unscheduled meeting.

“For him (Mutsvangwa) to have called a meeting which we knew nothing
about, in circumstances in which he had not clearly sought permission from
the authorities in violation therefore of the law, and he being a
minister, he cannot at the end, after the law and order officers have
taken action against the meeting and the war veterans, complain that he
was ill-treated.

“He must bear the responsibility,” Mugabe thundered, adding that
Mutsvangwa would pay for his misdemeanours.

Police fired teargas and sprayed water on the gathered group of war
veterans who had trickled into the capital to attend the planned meeting
at the City Sports Centre.

The war vets later managed to secure a meeting with Mugabe, who promised
them that his government would address some of their grievances, including
paying school fees for their children.

The ex-combatants’ close to 42-year relationship with Mugabe ended mid
last year over their worsening plight, and the country’s deepening
political and economic rot.

Since that fallout, which hit media headlines after they released a
damning communique in which they savaged the Zanu PF leader before serving
him with divorce papers, the ex-combatants have not missed an opportunity
to attack Mugabe.

Until that fallout, the fed-up ex-combatants had served as Mugabe and Zanu
PF’s main power base, waging particularly brutal campaigns against popular
opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and the MDC, especially in the bloody
elections of 2000 and 2008.

But the nasty divorce had severe consequences for the leadership of the
former freedom fighters as Mutsvangwa was fired from both the Cabinet and
the ruling party, while many of their other leaders were banished from the
imploding former liberation movement, in addition to being hauled before
the courts.

In ending their relationship with Mugabe, war vets claimed that the
nonagenarian’s continued stay in power was now a stumbling block to the
country’s development, adding rather derisively that Zimbabwe’s
long-ruling leader would be “a hard-sell” if he ever contemplated
contesting next year’s presidential poll.

The disgruntled former freedom fighters have also since been ratcheting up
their loud calls for Mugabe to retire immediately and pave the way for his
long-time aide, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, to take over the reins
at both party and government levels.

Analysts said yesterday that the refusal by the police to sanction the war
veterans’ planned meeting tomorrow was consistent with claims by the
opposition and pro-democracy groups that authorities applied the law
selectively.

“It shows that the police are partisan and act selectively in applying the
law. It also shows that for Mugabe, the succession debate remains taboo,
no matter who raises it, and that includes VP Mnangagwa and the war
veterans.

“It seems there will be no succession debate or identification of a
successor while Mugabe is around,” political analyst Dewa Mavhinga told
the Daily News.

COMMENTS

I personally see nothing bad about Mugabe refusing to spell out who his successor would or should be. Without commenting on his long stay in office, I feel that there are hidden agendas in this whole saga of the succession battles. I have no doubt that if some of the issues in the hidden agendas come to light there could easily be a civil war – indeed, some issues are volatile and are best kept under raps. I can quite confidently say that Mugabe is correctly aware of the fact that his present deputies will never make it in a fair and free election. For example Phelekezela Mphoko has now made a complete circus of himself everywhere around himself, and Ngwena is unelectable material – how long has he gone back to Parliament on Mugabe’s benevolence? None of these two can win in any election in Zim, rigged or not. They are so uselessly helpless that even rigging them into office would be too obvious. Be that as it may, there are certainly very strong undercurrents at play in this whole thing that make Mugabe cringe to think of them. Some who were very close to Mugabe have since admitted that they were on the payroll of the British secret intelligence service, and due to his benevolence Mugabe has admitted them back to his bossom and into the political party………one wonders how many real and genuine sell-outs we have in high offices, whom Mugabe knows but does not want to expose……..